By Joseph Akahome
- Chinua Achebe
Foremost Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe and Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, were among a host of international authors who called for an end to attacks on journalists in Mexico.
The writers took out a full page advert in Mexican newspaper El Universal to defend the right of all journalists to be free from fear and censorship.
The statement was signed by 170 of the world’s most acclaimed authors, including seven Nobel laureates.
Showing strong support for the journalists, the statement reads; ‘We, writers from around the world, stand with you and all Mexican citizens who are calling for the killing, the impunity, the intimidation to stop‘.
‘These violations diminish us all and threaten the right of Mexican citizens to live lives both safe and free from censorship. We call on your government to apprehend and prosecute all who have silenced your colleagues and seek to silence you‘, the statement further read.
Among those signing the declaration ‘to the journalists and writers of Mexico’ were Nobel laureates JM Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Toni Morrison, Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Mario Vargas Llosa and Derek Walcott.
Other famous signatories included Chinua Achebe, Margaret Atwood, Ariel Dorfman and Salman Rushdie.
Mexico is considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists to work in by many observers and most of the killings have been linked to organised criminal gangs, who have ostensibly targeted journalists in a bid to keep the lid on their drug-trafficking activities.
